<p>I just have a problem with the line "take the most challenging courses available." I understand that at some schools this is quite literally achievable. But at my school doing that would result in a killer schedule like:</p>
<p>AP Calc BC
AP Physics C
AP US Government & AP Comparative Government combo
AP Literature
AP Micro/Macro Economics
AP Spanish
AP (Bio, Chem, Music Theory, Comp Sci, whatever)
... that's nine AP tests!</p>
<p>Is that really what top schools are looking for?!? If not, what's a good example of a tough schedule for students attending a school with a lot of available AP classes?</p>
<p>Most people spread them out over the course of 10th, 11th, and 12th grade. Some even begin taking them in 9th grade. To try to cram them all in during one year is ridiculous.</p>
<p>AP USH
AP French Lang
Chemical Engineering (“post-AP”)
AP Calc BC</p>
<p>Which is about on par with what the top kids from my HS take. But we’re on block schedule. What do the schedules of the top kids from your school generally look like? </p>
<p>If you want to take a full slate of APs, my advice is to choose wisely. Balance your schedule–match hard APs in core classes with easier ones (Psych, CS, Environmental Sci). I would also save Physics C until after you’ve taken Calc, if that’s possible.</p>
<p>ok look this can be deceiving i took 3my sophomore year and 6 my junior year and then 4 my senior year and got 5’s on all of them…did that get me into top tier schools? no. did that get me into the easier-to-get-into ivies- yes. in retrospect i woudn’t have taken so many…its too much stress for too little reward.</p>
<p>^ This is a good point. The standards for “most rigorous” differ from school to school. Go in and ask your GC what s/he would consider “most rigorous.”</p>
<p>I know a kid at my school who didn’t take any AP social studies classes. I worried that this would sink him–it didn’t. He got into Penn and received a full ride to Emory. No idea whether the counselor put down “most rigorous” or not.</p>
<p>I don’t regret taking my APs because I found it sort of fun, in a weird way. And I got to miss a week of school last year. Plus I really needed the quality points to boost my GPA and rank after a bad freshman year.</p>
<p>Eh taking multiple advanced courses in the same year isn’t as horrible as people make it out to be. Senior year, 6 IBs + 2 APs + 5 clubs (I liked them so that was my relaxation time haha). A bit stressful at times but it depends where your limit is. I personally feel restless when I’m not busy so I enjoyed it but it’s up to you. Just know that yes, THERE IS ENOUGH TIME to do it (even with 3 hours of IB phys hw everyday, gawd that sucked~). Its more a matter of perseverance than difficulty.</p>
<p>Well at my school I don’t know of anyone whatsoever who is taking more than 5 APs.</p>
<p>My own schedule goes something like: </p>
<p>AP Calc BC
AP Physics C
AP USGov/AP Comparative Gov
AP Lit
Spanish 5
Orchestra (not even in the top one… I’m just doing this for consistency’s sake and being well-rounded. Is that a good idea?)
Engineering (which I managed to get into despite the fact that I never took Basic Tech Drawing. Also, the class is most likely merging with R&D, so I pretty much skipped two years of tech classes)</p>
<p>Is that alright? That’s signing up for the 5 hardest APs… and I’m cutting out the random APs (like Psych) that have little to do with my interests. </p>
<p>Basically my question boils down to whether I should plan my schedule based on rigor or based on my interests.</p>
<p>Also my guidance counselor is much more of the “Oh sure, go ahead” type guy who doesn’t really help. Except when you try to sign up for a killer schedule; all the counselors do everything to discourage kids from doing that and encourage kids to aim for lower schools.</p>
<p>I took 13 AP tests. Pretty basic. If you’re scared about that kind of workload, college would swallow you whole (well, if you’re going into science/engineering). I spend more time in algorithm design than I did my entire junior year on 7 APs.</p>
<p>My school is a block schedule school (we take four classes a semester) and it was decided that cramming all the BC material into one semester would be impossible. So students who want to take the BC test take a separate course which teaches the BC-only material…there’s not a lot there, so we got plenty of time to review for the test. Which was nice :></p>
<p>If you’re not interested in Orchestra I wouldn’t bother with it. Take it only if music is something you love. Otherwise that looks like a fine schedule, although is there any reason you’re not taking AP Spanish?</p>
<p>OHH I see. My bad, at my school block scheduling means having classes every other day, as in we would have odd and even days.</p>
<p>Yeah, I’m thinking that I should cut out orchestra and replace it with something… although I’m not all too sure with what. I’m not planning on taking AP Spanish since I do rather poorly on the speaking and listening, which is pretty much the majority of the class (according to my Spanish teacher). I’ve been getting by previous years with high grades since it was very grammar/vocab heavy.</p>
<p>What perplexes me is that there isn’t anybody at my school who is taking more than 5 AP classes. I mean, I know somebody who plans on taking 6 but most of them are classes like AP Art History.</p>
<p>I’m not too concerned about the actual course work itself, but the time it would take to do the homework and still take care of my other EC’s, like going to sports practices every day for all three sports seasons…</p>
<p>But seriously thanks! It’s really encouraging to know that people outside of my school have had really intense schedules and came out alive :)</p>
<p>OP, I’m in the same situation. I will be taking 7 AP tests next year, and no free periods. My friends, most of whom are taking at least 1, if not 2 free periods next year, are all telling me I’m crazy, and I’m starting to think they’re right!</p>
<p>It’s nice to come on here where these kinds of schedules are normal, especially since the GCs at my school seem kind of astounded that anybody in the top 10% wouldn’t just want use that rule and go to UT or A&M.</p>